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Recovery of Costs

Recovery of disbursements

When ×î×¼µÄÁùºÏ²ÊÂÛ̳ are supplying goods or services to customers they may also pay certain costs that they pass on when they invoice them, it may be possible to treat these payments as disbursements for VAT purposes. If so, ×î×¼µÄÁùºÏ²ÊÂÛ̳ don't charge VAT when the payments are passed on.

If ×î×¼µÄÁùºÏ²ÊÂÛ̳ pay suppliers on behalf of their customers and pass on the cost to the customer when invoicing them these payments can be left out of the VAT calculation and treated as disbursements provided:

  • ×î×¼µÄÁùºÏ²ÊÂÛ̳ paid the supplier on their customer's behalf and acted as the agent of their customer
  • ×î×¼µÄÁùºÏ²ÊÂÛ̳'s customer received, used or had the benefit of the goods or services ×î×¼µÄÁùºÏ²ÊÂÛ̳ paid for on their behalf
  • It was ×î×¼µÄÁùºÏ²ÊÂÛ̳'s customer's responsibility to pay for the goods or services, not ×î×¼µÄÁùºÏ²ÊÂÛ̳'s
  • ×î×¼µÄÁùºÏ²ÊÂÛ̳ had permission from the customer to make the payment
  • ×î×¼µÄÁùºÏ²ÊÂÛ̳'s customer knew that the goods or services were from another supplier, not from ×î×¼µÄÁùºÏ²ÊÂÛ̳
  • ×î×¼µÄÁùºÏ²ÊÂÛ̳ show the costs separately on their invoice
  • ×î×¼µÄÁùºÏ²ÊÂÛ̳ pass on the exact amount of each cost to their customer when they invoice them
  • The goods and services ×î×¼µÄÁùºÏ²ÊÂÛ̳ paid for are additional to whatever ×î×¼µÄÁùºÏ²ÊÂÛ̳ are billing their customer for doing themselves

Recovery of non-disbursements

There are many incidental costs that ×î×¼µÄÁùºÏ²ÊÂÛ̳ might incur that can't be excluded from the VAT calculation when customers are invoiced. Any costs that ×î×¼µÄÁùºÏ²ÊÂÛ̳ incurs itself in the course of supplying goods or services to customers are not disbursements for VAT purposes. It is ×î×¼µÄÁùºÏ²ÊÂÛ̳ and not the customer who purchases the goods and services which are supplied to and used by ×î×¼µÄÁùºÏ²ÊÂÛ̳'s business . ×î×¼µÄÁùºÏ²ÊÂÛ̳ will need to charge VAT on these when they are recharged whether or not ×î×¼µÄÁùºÏ²ÊÂÛ̳ have paid any VAT or not.

An example of a cost that could be recharged but is not a disbursements is an airline ticket that ×î×¼µÄÁùºÏ²ÊÂÛ̳ buys to visit a client or to travel to a job. If ×î×¼µÄÁùºÏ²ÊÂÛ̳ recharges the cost to the client VAT must be charged because the flight was for ×î×¼µÄÁùºÏ²ÊÂÛ̳ not for the client.

Where VAT is incurred by ×î×¼µÄÁùºÏ²ÊÂÛ̳ on a cost which is recharged for example on a meal then the VAT incurred by ×î×¼µÄÁùºÏ²ÊÂÛ̳ is recoverable.